I've learned today what I don't have a taste for.
When people start acting as if bicycles and parts are an obsession and start thinking like they are negotiating buying an organ for their treasured great aunt on death's door, well forget 'em.
I listed an item on ebay that was unusual. It had some value, but not to me, so I wanted to pass it on. If everyone who sent me a private email trying to buy the darn thing actually bid a dollar on it, the auction would have gone somewhere. Instead people stopped bidding and sent me emails, endlessly. I did something that I don't consider necessarily right, it bugs me even this morning, I just closed the auction and sold to the only one of these private offer people who actually made an effort to bid and meet my reserve. On thinking on what I did, I probably perpetuated the problem by not sticking to the end of the auction. I should have just ignored the whole thing and gone ahead, and if the item went to the only serious bidder for 1/4 of what he offered me privately, just been happy with that because...
THEY ARE ONLY BIKE PARTS FOR GOD'S SAKE!
Hope I haven't offended anyone with my use of their selected deity's name here, but the point I'd like to make, is we all do this for fun. No one is dying because you didn't get the correct crank bolts for your 1959 and a 1/2, Italian bicycle that Gino Bartali rode for one stage of the Giro and promptly forgot. No one really cares but you, and if someone else says to you, "nice bike, but you have the wrong crank bolts, and it has utterly ruined my enjoyment of your historic bicycle," perhaps they are a bit obsessed, no?
This experience was a dose of reality for me. Maybe because this week I had some serious vet bills for a loved and elderly pet and I had a moment of remorse watching my money go towards that expense, instead of fun bicycle stuff. I think I'm going to take a page from my ever-wise and sweetly pragmatic boyfriend, Ray, who says, "Heck, I just ride 'em." I'll complete the projects I have, enjoy them, have fun with ya'all at Cirque and other events and then use my fun money and paint the dining room.
Ann Phillips, Decatur GA